Empire WatchAnalysis of current world affairs with focus on gloabal struggle for social and economic justice and against racism, war, imperialism and oppression much of it brought on by US Empire and its allies

Obama, Al Sharpton and the Empire

It’s easy to dismiss the lunatics at Fox News whose shows are mostly paranoid cries about the white Christian man “losing” his stature and power and that Jesus is not getting the respect he used to get. One of their commentators recently complained that the movie “Noah” did not accurately portray what actually took place according to the Bible!

In contrast, it’s not so easy to dismiss MSNBC anchors. That’s because they’re not 5 year olds stuck in the body of grown ups whose audience includes those who still think the Sun goes around the Earth and that Jesus will return back to Earth from wherever he is now. They are, in contrast, among the most sophisticated advocates of the Empire and the most formidable adversaries and enemies of the working class.

The brainwashing of the American people does not and cannot take place in a homogeneous way. That would not be feasible or necessary. While the Empire benefits from the gross ignorance and naïveté of much of the population, in large part through the use of religion and fear – fear of blacks, Latinos, immigrants, gays, Muslims, etc. – it does not expect to keep everyone in dark ages. Nor does it need or want to. A significant portion of the population who are more educated, more enlightened, more tolerant and less frightened of minorities – some of whom are my Facebook friends – are herded by the more sophisticated and more liberal Democrats into a separate grazing area.

The US Empire has had some major victories and successes in the last couple of hundred years. The election of Barrack Obama will surely go down in history as one of such significant victories. To understand the significance of the Democrats for the Empire, and especially someone who is supported by most blacks and other minorities, one only needs to look at what Obama was able to accomplish for his bosses, which a fear mongering racist homophobic misogynist Bible wielding president wouldn’t and couldn’t.

It wasn’t just Obama’s idea to dismiss and shun Cornell West who criticizes the influence of Wall Street billionaires on the Administration and to embrace instead, with both arms, a low life traitor like Al Sharpton. In fact, his dismissal of the likes of West or even earlier, before his election into office, of Jeremiah Wright, who famously said during one of his sermons, “God damn America”, was understood by him as a requirement of his job, which he was happy to comply.

Sharpton who has the audacity to praise Dr. King, was not bothered at all by the fact that the FBI relentlessly pursued, persecuted and eventually helped eliminate the Civil Rights leader, when he was working as an informant for the Bureau, in 1980’s. He now calls himself a “refined agitator”, who no longer uses slurs such as “faggot” or “homos” and he no longer refers to Jews as “diamond merchants”. Yes, he’s refined alright. He can now be much more useful to the Empire as a black man “defending” voting rights for blacks and protesting racial killings of unarmed black teenagers in the hands of armed white men claiming self-defense, and giving legitimacy to the President than a homophobic, antiemetic FBI informant ever could. Besides, he’s making much more money this way. His “salary” just from National Action Network where he’s president and CEO is over $241,000, not to mention his salary from MSNBC, where all he does is defend Obama. But, like Obama, he knows where his limits are. You won’t hear this “refined agitator” talk about the poverty and unemployment among the African American population which is at the highest level in 50 years or their continued disproportional incarceration or the police beatings, or the fact that during Obama’s presidency, 95% of the generated wealth went to the top 1%. Like his boss, Obama, he’s being put into use much more effectively for the billionaire bosses than being an informant for the same Bureau which had Dr. King on its kill list. Now, he defends Obama’s “kill list” and remains quiet about Guantanamo and the genocide against Palestinians by the racist apartheid state of Israel. “Refined” indeed!